I’m 36 weeks pregnant as of today. In theory that means 4 weeks to go, but maybe only three if the boy follows in his sister’s footsteps and does me the favor of coming a week early, or it could be as much as 5 weeks if he decides that I haven’t been posting enough about him and decides to get revenge by digging in until my obstetrician evicts him. Either way the end is in sight and I will be the proud mother of two by Valentines Day at the very latest.

I haven’t be posting bi-monthly pregnancy updates with belly shots this time like I did last time. It’s certainly not because I’m less excited about the boy than I was about Margaret. I’m just a much busier person these days. Also, there are certain obvious drawbacks to being heavily pregnant whilst also caring for an active toddler. I don’t want to whine about it because I went out and did this to myself knowing full well what I was likely getting myself into. I still think it was the right thing to do for the right reasons, but I am tired and cranky a lot and I don’t like posting about being tired and cranky when it’s my own doing. Also, medically this pregnancy is extremely uninteresting in a good way, at least so far. At least my body does gestation well.

My latest checkup was yesterday. They did the group B strep swab, so I have my fingers crossed hoping for good results on that one. Doing labor with IV antibiotics is not my idea of a good time, so I am hoping to dodge that bullet again. The boy is head down and there’s a normal amount of fluid in there, so everything is looking good for another uncomplicated delivery.

I think this baby is going to be bigger than Margaret was. I am feeling more stretchy pressure in there than I remember, and I am getting kicked in the ribs a lot. He doesn’t kick quite as hard as I remember Margaret doing, but he is more consistent. Margaret would have outbursts of furious activity followed by periods of rest. The boy in plenty strong, but not quite as intense. He goes for a more constant level of activity on a slightly lower setting. He’s also less likely to stop when I try to let someone else feel from the outside.

We have pretty much settled on a name for the boy, though I’m not going to announce it until after the birth. We reserve the right to change our minds until then. We might see the boy and suddenly think the name isn’t right after all. I hope not, though, I’m pretty happy with the tentative name. Finding a boy name that everyone can live with and that isn’t too common is not easy.

We had a much, much harder time coming up with a boy name we both liked than a girl one - I sympathize. And I am amazed that you are able to handle being so pregnant with a toddler. I certainly could not do it.